Page 2 - AAMHC Summer 2015 Final Version

The fraternity sponsored the historical marker, not only to The African communities came into question. The prophetic and
honor Bishop Love, but to give a sense of hope and pride American qualitative edge was lost as our political and
to the community. United Methodists owe a debt of Methodist quantitative assumptions were realized. This was,
gratitude to the fraternity for the marker that will keep Heritage and still is, the wrong way to do a right thing.
the memory of Bishop Love and our heritage alive for Center is a
future generations. ministry Even if there are sweeping reforms in every police
related to department in America, we know black and brown
- Samuel E. NeSmith, Sr. Retired Clergy, the United men and women will still be disproportionately
Virginia Conference, nesmith9924@gmail.com Methodist stopped, arrested, jailed and/or killed. That means
Church. It we must not allow the fact that we can name a few
DOING THE views the leaders of a bygone era be the sum total of what the
RIGHT THING church and Civil Rights Struggle was about. If our communities,
THE WRONG its ministry our churches, our families, our schools and our lives
WAY in retrospect are not worth more now than they ever have been,
than the right things we have been doing must be
Lessons from Florida to Baltimore and examined because the results are far too wrong.
prospect.
“A man may do a right thing in a wrong way; but he The AAMHC Let us consider doing the right things the right way
cannot do a wrong thing in a right way. For there is no seeks to and for the right reasons. We must be able to look
right way of doing wrong.” (Charles Jewett, c1880) learn and back three decades from now and say, “Wrong things
appropriate can never be done for the right reasons, so we stood
As the mainstream media’s attention shifted from Florida, the past as up and we spoke out until things changed because we
to Missouri, to Ohio, to New York, to South Carolina, and informant knew the right things had to be done for all the right
to Baltimore, Maryland, it was as if we were watching and bridge reasons."
bullets ricochet across the country as black men and to a more
women met their demise day-by-day. As soon as the faithful and - Rev. Dr. Cedrick Bridgeforth
crowds dispersed, the cameras stopped rolling. Or could effective
it be, as soon as the cameras stopped rolling, the crowds future. It Rev. Bridgeforth is the Chairman of Black Methodists For Church
dispersed? Regardless, the silence we experience about envisions its Renewal, Inc. (BMCR). He can be reached at
the effects of racism and racial bias in our society today is work as cbridgeforth@calpacumc.org.
merely a reverberation of the complicity experienced the gatherer
past three decades that ultimately set the stage for the IT’S TIME TO
tragedies we now experience. This is true whether we and TAKE ACTION
focus on police shootings, voting rights, equitable conserver of
treatment in the church and many other deficiencies we `It Takes Two’ to
experience as a society because we have not resolved our the vital Challenge Racism
fascination with racism and our fixation on semblances of history and
power while our people die a slow death in and outside heritage of The 48th annual gathering
the church. Black people
of the Black Methodists
As schools and public venues were desegregated and in the
blacks were granted voting rights there was much successive for Church Renewal met
jubilation that “we had overcome.” We would now be Methodist
treated equally and would have the same rights, privileges bodies from April 16-19, 2015 in
and advantages white folk had always enjoyed. With the
creation of The United Methodist Church we saw a rise in the Orlando, Florida. The
the number of ebony bishops and district Methodist
superintendents. As those critical voices were lifted from Episcopal chairman, Rev. Cedrick D.
the black church context and community to serve the Church, to
broader church there was no system in place or sense of Joe Wilson Board Member, Bridgeforth, urged
urgency mounted to raise up more leaders from within to being and Carol Travis, Executive members to work
fill a now obvious void. Thus, as those persons who had racially alongside others to
been elevated to other offices and moved to distant segregated Assistant, AAMHC
geographic locations, where blacks were not the power in the challenge and ultimately
base or majority, the strength of the black churches and Central
Jurisdiction, eliminate covert and overt racism in The United
to the
United Methodist Church and the nation. The theme of this
Methodist
Church in year’s meeting was “It’s Time to Take Action.” The

the group kept to its plan to meet in Orlando despite
American
and global Florida’s high-profile deaths of young black men from
society.
gun violence.

Several developments since last year’s gathering were
highlighted. One is the Black Papers Project, a catalog
of papers and statements expressing BMCR’s
Positions on various topics and issues and written by
African American bishops and other caucus members.
Another development was the move of BMCR’s office
from The United Methodist Publishing House in
Nashville, Tennessee, to the campus of Gammon
Theological Seminary in Atlanta. Two staff persons
were hired, a manager of Continued next page…